The Steerpike Awards of 2021

Well 2021 is at an end and what a hell of a year it’s been. There were laughs, tears, shock, disgust and despair – and that was just the reaction to footage of Matt Hancock’s video nasty. The past twelve months have seen various ups and downs in Britain and abroad, ranging from the highlights of the vaccine rollout and England’s Euro run to low points like the Capitol coup, the Afghanistan debacle and various pandemic pitfalls.

And Mr S has been there throughout it all to chart the gossip, drama, high politics and low shenanigans. Tony Benn once sniffed that it was ‘issues, not personalities’ that mattered; Steerpike holds that the inverse is true when looking back at the events of 2021. For how else can one reflect on the chaos of the past year without seeing it through the prism of the personalities involved?

So as the year ends, Mr S has rounded up a baker’s dozen of his favourite personalities in British politics this year, an unlucky thirteen who have found themselves all too often in his crosshairs.